Boot leaves Active to set up international recruitment firm

RICHARD Boot OBE, a former regional chairman of the Institute of Directors (IoD), has set up a new executive search company aimed at businesses doing international trade.

Open Executive Search and Selection will operate from offices in Birmingham, London and Milan.

The move means Boot will no longer be involved in Active Human Capital, the recruitment firm he ran with Stephen Bryan. Bryan will now run that on his own.

Boot said the split had been amicable.

He has established Open Executive Search with Marco Alemagna, a colleague from IRC, the global network of recruitment firms on whose international board Boot sits.

Open will be the UK and Italian representative firm for IRC which has 250 consultants globally, based in 70 offices and covering 30 countries.

It will employ four consultants supported by an operations director and will have access to a team of 12 multi-lingual researchers.

Boot says the number of firms doing business overseas now has convinced him that a recruitment firm with an international focus could prosper.

“We are getting quite a lot of interest already,” he said. “It may be forms with an international development programme or those looking for a country manager.

“And it’s not all Brits moving abroad. We’ve helped US and Dutch firms to find executives in the UK.”